I do not remember why I first got interested in the German twins Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein. Perhaps it had to do that they look as if they have never successfully spoken with a human and are from another planet. Last year, I remember saying the animation quality and the random plots made me question if everything was ok with them. As strange as it may sound, I think it is a theory that neatly puts away all the weirdness from their films. They did put out children-targeted films in consecutive years and both were unspeakably strange and bizarre. Unlike there, these lads had things much dire than The Spy Cat or Luis and the Aliens, which I presume is where the bafflement stems from.
To emphasize, Spy Cat is still bad in the same ways as most of the animated shovel ware from other countries which gets dumped into cinemas by distributors looking for an easy buck. It is a horrendous looking animated film with flat backgrounds, textures that are crude, a sickly looking color palette, and poorly crafted character models that are inconsistently proportioned and lifeless. The animation itself is extremely stiff so the dialogue sounds like broken robots and the action sequences are barely better than the cutscenes of Mort the Chicken for the PS1. Characters have just one trait each, which is annoying. The story is a mix of contradiction where too much is happening with absolutely nothing at all taking place, with a centerpiece that is unreasonably scrunched underneath a pile of side plots so overwhelming that it wouldn’t be able to make sense for even a short 12 minute Disney Jr. episode. And the dub is horrendous with both wooden and shouting line-readings, sound effects frequently absent, characters talking without moving their mouths, and so on.
There is a works of Lowenstein’s that display too much “ambition” for me to go so cynical, but I would say, “They are children. No wonder why there is no quality control placed on it.” But the works of the Lowenstein’s display too much “ambition” for me to bear. A loner child who has parental issues makes friends with weird aliens. Luis certainly started with a generic premise, but then expanded his imagination by adding supremely jarring scenes of emotional neglect. An infomercial for electric massage appliances, crazed school principals, and intergalactic government conspiracies marketed as an inciting incident are all performed by characters that behave like cardboard cut-outs of organic life forms. I suppose it was disturbing to sit through. The plot reminded me of a midribs game intended to entertain strung out participants who had ingested a kilo of cocaine. And yet, there was one solace the bizarre aspects of the show made it all the more fun.
On the other hand, Spy Cat begins at strange and continues on that path till the end. The story is set in a quaint little village of Drabville, where we meet a pet housecat named Marnie Sunshine, who is obnoxiously human and too pampered for her own good (her actress speaks all her lines as if she is scared of disturbing the neighbors). She sleeps, regularly eats her meals on a table whilst using a knife and fork, and watches her favorite secret agent show. However, her mundane existence is destined to change due to the arrival of Paul. Paul is the cousin of Marnie’s owner Rosalinde and has been missing for ages. Strangely, he appears on their porch in a wheelchair, requesting accommodation. The truth is, he’s a world famous “cat burglar” who uses a flying wheelchair as his mode of transport after the heist, which is stationed in Drabville to loot the tacky paintings of local artists that happen to be worth millions. When Marnie learns about the deception, a whole load of SHENANIGANS occur that force her to join an exploited guard dog known as Elvis, a spiritual rooster called Eggbert who is fleeing a pack of sexually unsatisfied hens, and a donkey called Anton who masquerades as a zebra, in order to capture the thieves.
That shoddy summary is just the tip of the iceberg. Press highlights Spy Cat’s inspiration as the Bremen Town Musicians, a story by the Brothers Grimm. That explains the choice of animals but does not eliminate the idea that this is a script that was drafted for humans and had animals put in at the last minute. For instance, much is made of Eggbert and Anton’s lack of hands throughout the film. It is a minor plot point, still both characters will, in fact, grasp objects with their non-hands throughout. Another example has our animal ensemble speaking to the police via television through set dialogue, no explanation is given as to how they are animals that cannot talk, yet in the other instances, the humans treat the animals as if they were ordinary humans capable of driving and, ironically, stealing. What the whole Eggbert side story is supposed to mean? Why does the farmer selflessly sacrifice his own chickens, who he names and feels bad about devouring, to the chicken soup instead of just buying special chickens from somewhere else?
The questions pile up rather quickly in Spy Cat, which is very surprising.
What is with the unexpected North by Northwest crop-duster tribute? How come the countless kitschy portraits featuring unremarkable villagers, who mostly must have been painted recently due to their notable difference in age, are approximately worth millions? Given that Drabville has functioning internet, how is it possible that no one knows this until our animals conducts a Google search? What are we meant to do with Rosalinde having Marnie’s two predecessors stuffed and mounted on a cabinet with a placed reserved for ‘Marnie” in the future because the film does nothing with it? Why does everyone say that Marnie’s TV show is a ‘crime show’ when it is painfully clear that it is a spy show? Why do the lines spoken in Elvis’ voice change every four or five lines? Every voice is associated with its own character. Why does Elvis’ voice switch every few lines? Why does everyone refer to Marnie’s show as a crime show when it is rather a spy show?
It may seem as though some of those questions are irrelevant, but they all combine to create a film which becomes astonishingly addictive when watched repeatedly.
While the highly outrageous instances that elicit “WHAT THE HECK?!” are not as common as they would be in a bad movie, their presence serves as a mystifying way to punctuate the film, just like a family friendly Tim & Eric sketch (albeit unintentional). That’s what interests me the most with this and Luis. There is something quintessentially off about both films, and most of it feels super surreal, which is why the Lowenstein’s’ films feel as if they’re in a tug of war between absurdity and dull norms, with neither side winning.
In fairness, it does represent a genuine improvement from Luis, which was shrill and irritating even during its most chaotic moments. So while Spy Cat is far from supplementary material, it is certainly not worth analysis through dainty spectacles. And, as someone who appreciates bad movies, I just have to recommend its watching for further study. Why trade generic, lifeless, and brain dead cash grabs when I can enjoy barely expellable cuckoo birds?
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